Promises
by Tenzari
Summary: Duo is seriously wounded. Can Heero keep a promise that he would stop killing?
1. Trigger

Promises

Duo ran up the stairs and taunted back to Heero, "You'll never catch me!" _"Well what do you expect, I'm carrying four bags of groceries and he is only carrying one,"_ Heero thought as he continued his hurried pace up the stairs. Duo stuck his head over the railing, "I win! I'll beat you to the door too!" His head disappeared from the railing and Heero could hear him unlocking the door. "Hey! What are you doing!" Duo was screaming at someone. _"What the hell? Who could he possibly be screaming at? No one is there…SHIT!"_ Heero thought quickly as he suddenly heard three gunshots. He dropped is bags and ran as fast as he could up the remaining stairs. Duo was lying in a rapidly growing pool of his own blood. Heero knelt beside him and looked into the apartment to see the gunman look up at him on his way back out of one of the windows, he burned the image of the mans face into his mind before he turned back to Duo. He tore off pieces of his shirt to press over Duo's wounds as he called for an ambulance. "Please hurry, he's been shot three times, we'll be waiting downstairs for you!" He yelled into the phone.

Heero looked down into Duo's eyes and saw pain and sadness. "Duo, you're going to be fine, the ambulance is on the way. It doesn't look like anything vital was hit but you are losing a lot of blood." Duo grabbed Heero's hand and held it tight. "If they don't make it in time I want you to know that I love you and please, keep your promise." Heero looked up at the ceiling and felt the warmth of tears, as he shut his eyes he could feel them run down his face. "I love you too Duo, I'll do my best." He felt Duo's grip relax and his eyes shot open and he looked down at him. _"Christ, he's going into shock,"_ He thought as he picked Duo up and began his run down the stairs.

The ambulance pulled up as he ran across the lobby towards the door. The paramedics ran to him with a stretcher and he gently laid Duo's limp body on it. "He lost a lot of blood and he went into shock before I could bring him down here. Take him to Cedar's Sinai." Heero climbed into the back with the paramedics and grabbed Duo's hand and held on tight. "Stay strong my love, because if you leave me I won't be far behind." He heard the monitor beep and watched as the sine wave went flat. Despite all of his training as a soldier and all of the death he had seen in his life he felt his heart in his throat and the tears starting to well up in his eyes.

Both paramedics looked at the monitor the same time. One grabbed the paddles as the other put gel on it. "CLEAR!" Duo's body lurched from the electricity that coursed through it. Beep. "Charge…CLEAR!" His body lurched again. The monitor resumed the horribly slow, steady beeping once again. The paramedic who seemed to be in charge looked to the other, "Call ahead and tell them we need an O.R. cleared stat, we'll lose him if we don't get him into surgery as soon as we get there." One of the paramedics picked up a radio and relayed the message to the hospital.

The ambulance screeched to a halt and everyone piled out. The paramedics rushed the stretcher inside with Heero right beside still holding Duo's hand. He leaned close and whispered into Duo's ear. "I'll be here waiting for you. Please don't leave me." He had to let go of his hand as they wheeled him through double doors to an operating room. He looked down at his hands which were covered with Duo's blood. He took out a handkerchief and wiped them off the best he could. He collapsed into one of the chair against the wall and sank into his thoughts.

"Sir. Excuse me, Sir!" He jumped out of sleep and reached for his gun, the gun he stopped carrying a year ago at Duo's request. "Yeah?" He asked who he now realized was a policeman. "Sir, are you the partner of one Duo Maxwell?" He blinked, "I am, my name is Heero, can I help you?" "I just came from your apartment and it was ransacked, it looked like someone was looking for something, can you shed any light on this?" Heero looked up at him, "I'm not really sure what happened, but the man I saw leaving seems really familiar to me. I'll be happy to sketch you a picture if you will bring me a pencil and pad. No, I can't think of anything anyone would be after. I work in software security and my partner Duo is a programmer." Heero looked back down at the floor. "Thank you, if you would just give the officer at the desk the sketch when you finish he can fax it to us, I don't have any more questions right now." The officer handed him a pencil and sketch pad and walked away.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Heero was taking up an entire row of seats in order to get sleep. He had finished the sketch and had given it to the officer at the hospital. The fact that the man seemed really familiar was eating at him. What really bothered him though was that the man was looking for something.

"_What the hell could he have been looking for?"_ He thought. _"There shouldn't be anything there anyone would want besides the TV, stereo, and my laptop."_

"Mr. Yuy?"

"Wait, what if it were someone from the war?" He seized on the thought. "At first Duo and I didn't know each other very well we got to know most of the people around us fairly well."

"Excuse me, Mr. Yuy?" The voice asked again.

Heero returned to reality. The man who had been calling his name was one of the doctors still wearing scrubs. He felt himself go cold inside.

"Yeah, do you have news on Duo yet Doctor?" He asked.

"Mr. Maxwell is out of surgery, but he is still in critical condition he is in ICU at the moment. He is still unconscious and he lost a lot of blood. We managed to stop the bleeding but there is still a chance he may not live though the night, however, if he does he has a very good chance of a full recovery. You can see him for a minute if you like, after this until he regains consciousness he is not to be disturbed. He needs to rest and recover."

Heero cringed inwardly. He nodded at the doctor and got up to follow him. They walked through a number of doors before walking into the room Duo had been given. He walked up to him and almost wept. Duo was hooked up to a machine that was helping him breathe and the monitoring systems beeped painfully slow.

"What was the extent of his injuries?" He asked the doctor.

"His most serious injury was what appeared to be the first and second bullets. They lacerated his pulmonary artery and collapsed his lung. We had to put a tube in to help him breathe. Those two injuries were where he lost the most blood. The last bullet shattered his clavicle. He is too weak to breathe on his own, which is why he is still hooked up to the machine."

BEEP BEEP BEEP.

"Sorry, we need to leave him now, I just got another call. If you leave your name and a number we can reach you at we will call you the moment he regains consciousness." The doctor said putting his beeper back in its holder.

"Yeah, sure." Heero said slightly distracted. He scribbled his name and number on a slip of paper and handed it to the doctor. The doctor took it and put it in his pocket and then walked out of the room.

Heero walked out of the room and sighed. He would be back at the hospital the first thing in the morning. His primary concern was to find out who did this and make them pay dearly, while keeping his promise.

"Whoever you are, I will find you, and when I do you will beg for me to kill you." He said softly as he walked out of the main doors of the hospital.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

Heero walked slowly up the stairs of the apartment building. He was in no hurry to get back to the apartment. He walked past the bags of groceries he had dropped and shuddered.

"Christ. I don't know if I'll ever be able to live here again."

He continued up the stairs to the top floor.

God.

The police hadn't completely cleaned up the mess. There was crime scene tape around the area. He ducked under it and went into the apartment. From the doorway he couldn't tell that anything was actually missing. The apartment had been trashed.

"Well, whatever it was he came for it wasn't money."

"No. It wasn't Heero."

Heero spun around; reaching for the gun he had stopped carrying.

The figure walked out of the shadows of his bedroom. It was Trowa.

"What the hell are you doing here?

Trowa walked closer to Heero.

"Well we got here earlier this afternoon. It was supposed to be a surprise for your birthday. Duo had it all planned out for us all to get together again. Wufei has been here and left. He and Quatre are headed to the hospital, I told them I would be there later."

Heero moved to the table and sat down with Trowa following suit.

"Do you know what happened then?"

Trowa nodded.

"Quatre has a friend on the force. He told him what had happened. I told them I would be the one to wait for you."

Heero nodded.

"I came back to figure out why the guy was here in the first place. I'm glad you are all here though. I was going to call you all."

Trowa stood up.

"Heero, I want to show you something. This might be out of the ordinary."

Trowa walked into the bedroom. Heero got up and followed him into the dimly lit room. He waited for his eyes to adjust and saw Trowa reaching into the closet. His eyes widened when he saw what he had.

"What the…" was all that Heero could mutter.

Trowa was holding a small wooden box with "L2" carved into the lid.

"I've never see this Trowa. Never."

Trowa looked at him with an odd expression.

"Never?"

"Never."

Heero reached out to hold the box.

"Well if he has never shown it to you then there must have been something important in it." Trowa mused quietly.

"It isn't that big. There might be enough room to hold a disk or two. Some bullets maybe…" He had a sudden sinking feeling. "If there were disks in it, what the hell could have been on them? What would be worth trying to kill Duo for?" He thought out loud.

"One this is certain, we must use everything at our disposal to find this person."

"I couldn't agree more Trowa.

Heero sat the box down and walked out of the apartment with Trowa close behind.


End file.
